The January transfer window is not far away. Two weeks from now the New Year will start and therefore the window itself with it. We should not be surprised that the media are now spending more and more time talking and writing about potential transfer moves and one such story appeared on Monday.
Manchester United are interested in Malcom. To be more precise, Daily Mail suggest Manchester United are ready to spend £30m on the Brazilian winger playing for Ligue 1 side Bordeaux.
So who is he really? How likely are we to see him at Old Trafford by the time the window shuts on 1 February?
Who Is Malcom?
Malcom is a 20-year old winger playing in French top tier. He caught the eye of many football fans and pundits in recent months, after his performances for Bordeaux drastically improved.
This season Malcom played 1377 minutes in Ligue 1 across 17 appearances, starting on 15 occasions. He scored seven goals playing either as a right winger in a 4-2-3-1 or on the right of the front three in a 4-3-3 formation.
He also made four assists, thus making him responsible for 11 of Bordeaux’s 22 league goals this season. It is easy to conclude how valuable Malcom has been for the Girondins.
Almost three months ago, Mohamed Mohamed of the Statsbomb website wrote a piece on why Bordeaux could be chasing the Champions League spots this season. In the meantime, we realized Bordeaux are not yet that good, but some interesting points about Malcom were raised.
A Great Prospect Overall
The Brazilian was described as the “crown jewel of this side”. Mohamed wrote that “he’s much more of a creator for others while probably having more functional athleticism than his teammate [Francois Kamano]. He can shift and juke to beat defenders, use his acceleration when needing to get on the end of passes.
“It’s almost frightening how much Malcom will try and create dangerous opportunities with his dribbling and passing. So far though, the results have been splendid as he’s been able to make something out of nothing with some of his solo runs”, Mohamed claimed. Malcom really looks a great prospect.
Are Manchester United Going To Buy Him?
However, are Manchester United really going to buy him? Probably not, especially not in January window. It is hard seeing Mourinho chasing another right winger midway through the season. After all, United could do with a left-footed left winger to give more balance to this team.
Malcom has all the potential to become a truly wonderful player. His dribbling, creativity and goalscoring output make him very interesting to many top European clubs. There will be a chase for him, probably next summer, and if Man United are actually going to go for him, it will happen then.
Manchester United are more realistically going to try and find a left-back or a central-midfielder this January. Those areas seem much more urgent. On the right wing, United are doing just fine with Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Juan Mata playing at the high level.
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